How to Get Your Home Ready for Estate Agent Photos

Your home listing photos are usually a prospective buyer’s first impression – so it pays to knock them out of the park. Whether you’ll be taking them yourself on our Free package, or would prefer the help of one of our dab hand local estate agents – prepping your home is essential. Here’s how to get ready for professional estate agent pictures. 

Start with kerb appeal 

When you’re spritzing up your home for pictures, start as you mean to go on and get that kerb appeal just right. If you’ve got a garden in front of your property, give the path a sweep, tidy the lawn, trim any plants, and clear any visible grime from the windows. You’ll also probably need to jump in and move your wheelie bins before snapping the final pic – just something to remember for the day. 

Remove personal items 

Keep in mind that your aim with estate agent photography is to create a vision for buyers. And as much as we love a trinket and a tchotchke, they’re here to see the home, not its contents. So, box up as many of your decorations as you can and take down family photos. Think about other rooms too. Remove used towels and rugs from the bathroom before getting a picture, and when it comes to bedding, swap out the groovy patterns and aim for something neutral. 

Declutter and clear off surfaces 

Buyers need to be able to picture themselves in the home – and keeping surfaces clear helps make a property look more spacious. Take a stroll through the house and clear away any kitchen counter curios, bathroom bottles, and bedroom knick-knacks. Ensure you’ve closed any cupboards and that wardrobes aren’t bulging open. The little clues that you’ve paid attention to detail can help hint to potential buyers that the home is well maintained – and that their own belongings can fit in. 

Store the furniture you don’t need 

If you’ve got a small home brimming with furniture, it might pay to store some items ahead of your photography session. If your property has a garage, you can even just slot in a side table or an armchair for the appointment. You don’t need to keep it away for viewings, but photos help get buyers through the door, so keeping the home as light, airy, and spacious as you can at the time of snapping pictures is ideal. 

Package up your pet items  

Clear away any pet beds and toys for the pictures – this helps the place look more neutral and spacious, allowing buyers to envision themselves in the home. If you don’t have tons of storage space, you can pop smaller items in your car, or move them from room to room as you take your photos. 

Wrap up your DIY projects  

If you own a home, you’ve likely got at least 2 unfinished DIY projects on the go at any given time. But now’s the time to get them done. Make sure there are no obvious signs of ongoing DIY in the home – this helps it look well looked after, with no lingering maintenance tasks a new buyer would need to pick up. That includes if you’ve been meaning to wipe down any scuff marks or give any rooms a fresh lick of paint. 

Tend to the garden 

This is another space you want to seem tidy and pretty low maintenance when buyers are browsing. Give the bushes a trim, plants a tidy, and make sure to mow the lawn. If you have them, put away any toys or personal belongings outside. It’s all about the buyer being able to picture their own life in the home. 

A final tidy 

Once you’re finished lugging furniture around and tucking trinkets into boxes, a final mop and hoover is a great finishing touch. A clean home shows potential buyers that the property has been looked after over the years, adding appeal. 

All done! Is your home photo-ready? 

Done your final walkthrough? You don’t need to tidy up for us, but since you’ve done it already, now’s as good a time as any to book a free, no obligation valuation to see exactly what you could sell for, and to meet your local estate agents at Purplebricks. 

And when you’re ready to get your home on the market, we’ve got packages to suit every seller. With our Boost and Full House packages, you get enhanced photos and a professional floor plan as standard – amongst a stack of other benefits.  

If you’ve selected our Free package but want to invest in professional pictures to make your listing stand out, simply choose the ‘Digital enhanced photos, floorplan, and 360 visual tour' add-on for your package – and we’ll take them for you.